Learning and Living with a Reactive Dog

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Month: October 2011

Oreo was very shaky the last few weeks. We have had more stress at home, and since I have gone back to work she hasn’t been herself. It was so bad that when a car door would slam outside, she would get up barking like a nut! However, she did very well at training yesterday. We did calming curves, and she turned around nicely when she got near another dog and I called her name.

Also, I made sure I had a great reward for her when she got back into the car–STEAK! So now she enjoys going in the car more. Last session it was hard to get her to go back into the car. We also did a new exercise, called treat and retreat. I got her out of the car, and someone would stand about 10-15 feet away. Oreo barked at first, but the trainer who oreo adores, stood next to the new person. Oreo was better with the person then. We would take a few steps towards the person & they would throw a treat behind Oreo so she would turn. Then they people throwing the treats would back away a few steps, giving her room. Oreo kept going towards them and they kept throwing treats. This shows her people are good, and we can take breaks to calm ourselves by turning and retreating. We don’t ALWAYS have to run up to people, especially if we can’t control ourselves. This was a good activity for her, and we will continue to use it at training.

Her allergies seemed to be getting much better since we started her on raw. We also got honey locally, and have added it to her food. However, when it rains her eyes get more inflammed. So we are trying a homeopathic remedy-sulfur. We shall see how that goes…

It’s been a while, I’ve been busy with being back to work and life. Oreo is following at my heels everywhere now that I’m not home all of the time. A little bit of seperation anxiety is developing, but I am doing my best to make sure it doesn’t truely develop. I was just outside sitting in the sun with her…the weather is finally getting better.

I have neglected bringing her to the park in a week at least, and she has been more anxious at home. She played with her friend one day, and the next day she was snapping at him when he got too close. She would play bow and appeared to want to play, then she would snap at him when she got close. Not sure if it has been things developing over the week, anxiety because I am gone…or there is a big very BIG brown dog on the block that was walking towards them. However, the anxiety has carried on throughout the days, and this is expected since once a reactive dog has a panic attack it can take days to weeks to get the chemcials in her brain back to normal.

We had reactive class today, with another trainer filling in. Oreo was more anxious and wouldn’t turn around when we got closer to a dog. She still whines like she wants to go play, but has no impulse control. We started “Look at That”, where she was over 50 feet away from a person, and I say, “Look at That” and when she does I click and then she will turn and look at me (as long as she isn’t over threshold). Then I treat her. When the bait down there started walking around, she was not responding to the clicking, so we have a lot of work to do with her. The journey continues.